


Vox stellarum

by Greenscale



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Coruscant (Star Wars), Crash Landing, Death, F/M, Homophobia, Hurt, ISB, Imperium is not nice, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kallus needs a hug, M/M, Onderon (Star Wars), Pre-Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, The Jedi Purge, Workaholic, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:07:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21924145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greenscale/pseuds/Greenscale
Summary: How did Agent Kallus ended up being rebel Alexandr Kallus we all know? What a trip he has made from the streets of Coruscant to Lothal?If you have wondered it here is a story for you from the very beginning of his path. I will ad there more characters when I get further and a summary will also change.Man, I am bad with summaries and tags.If worried about what this will contain, chek the notes of the first chapter.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	1. Sunt pueri pueri, pueri puerilia tractant

Alexandr Kallus had always lived his life without a father. His mother told that his father had died at off-planet work trip without about knowing he was going to exist.  
After the death of his father had his mother made some very bad life chooses and ended up as an escort. Alexandr could not remember time before they had lived at the low levels, or when he’d actually had got his stomach full. Or when his mother had been longer than one month sober or not using spice, death sticks or something else. He had never felt secure at home. At the age of five-years Alexandr had learned when his mother was “lost between the stars” as she described it.  
The boy often stayed at the school as long as he could after school days. It was quite absurd to realize at a later age that there were not any social services working properly at the Coruscant. Papers of his case were always at the bottom of the pile since nobody beat him and there were no visible behaviour problems. Also, his grades were always way better than average for his region. Alexandr really was a good student, sharp and fast to learn. 

But he was also a child of his own region. At the ripe age of 10 he was drinking with older boys after the school and trying some other stuff too, but luckily got not addicted. Despite all of it, his grades stayed up and he was never worst of the troublemakers at the school. There was four of them: Bodhi, Bonte, Lur-Kain and Alexandr.  
They formed the body of their small group of friends. Bodhi and Bonte were cousins. Bodhi was twi’lek-human and Bonte full twi’lek. They were not often seen as relatives since Bodhi had no lekku, just purple hairs and very prominent ears. It was wild when he started to grow beard and it was angry purple too. Lur-Kain was nautolan. The boys had a large group of friends, but the four of them were the power dynamo.  
Mostly because his rough start, Alexandr learned to speak not just galactic basic, but also ryl, huttese and binary fluently. Learning new things was intriguing experience to him.  
And Alexander was fast enough to get away from the scene if the law enforcements were called up, or when someone saw him shoplifting. Even he and his friends were also smart enough not to steal at their home district where someone might have really recognised them, they were still in risk of being arrested several times.  
One of those times was almost fatal to Alexandr. 

They were 13-years old and they had been shoplifting for booze at one fifth day evening.  
It went wrong. It went horribly wrong when the owner had a pistol. Alexandr got shot right to the back at the very moment they left the shop. Lur-Kain and another nautolan, Rorkam, carried him until they had to leave him to an alley to save themselves. Wounded teenager crawled under a trash bin and was sure he was going to die. He could not move properly, and even breathing was hurting. By the stars, it was truly hurting.  
When he was spawling there sobbing and hurting the boy made a promise of it that this was not going to be the end of his life. That it was not going to be his life: dying all alone at dirty side alley after been shot to the back.  
Bodhi’s father was the one to come to pick him up from there. The tall, bear-like human who always smelt a bit like cumin and caf. He was always the one who collected the spoils of their misadventures in the form of taking care of kids who had drunk too much, been too badly beaten their parents or like now... Being an adult, being a nurse and being a doctor. Being their foundation and only father figure for most of the friends of his children.  
And that he was to Alexander too. It was actually hurting even worse when he saw how disappointed Mr Kyran was to him.  
“I will not live my life like this...” the boy cried to the shoulder of the man.  
“Just sleep.” Was the only answer he got.  
He was spending two nights at hospital of the Green moon volunteer. When he got away from there, his mother hadn’t even asked after him.  
Only his teachers had missed him, since friends of Alexander did know that he had been shot they were just glad and overprotective towards their mate. It was kind of heart-warming, but also tiresome. His teachers for sure were aware of what had happened to Kallus, but nobody talked about it with him. It was like a public sacred. And never was it mentioned directly when he talked to his friends.  
But it changed things for Alexandr.  
It actually changed everything. He actually took time and went to talk to his teachers, seek knowledge of his chances and when he could not tell what his dream job would be.  
One of his teachers suggested the Military Academy.  
And that was it. It seemed not to be so bad. They had student dorms, or should they be called dorms for cadets. Apparently decent food and ... It just looked like a place where he could find the direction to his life. And he would not need to stay at his mother’s place. Not that he really had been there more than just for sleep for the last five years. 

The entrance exams were not that hard. They have required some basic mathematics, basic writing, basic health inspection and a test for his physical abilities. Alexandr had no big troubles with any of those skills, even he did not get the top scores.  
He made mistake in a math test, writing could have been better, he was small for humans of his age and could be more agile also, being small meant that he had not hit puberty properly at age of 15 what meant that he was not getting very high physical points. None had been dropped out so far.  
Then there was a set of three interviews, group interview and a situation where they had to act as a group. There was a real person making the first interview held by a real official and Alexandr had a feeling that this general Yularen interviewing him was actually approving his answers, even though his expression barely changed. Other interviews were made by droids. Kallus honestly had no idea how he was performing, but he was not afraid to speak.  
After the group interview they were divided into two groups and the first group was sent away. The group scenario was interesting: They had to plan a trap for smugglers. His groups plan included a high-quality load of Spice and guns with average price and with a certain buyer.  
Later Alexandr would consider it as a naïve idea of a trap. But apparently it was good to try since all from his group were accepted.


	2. Non scolae sed vitae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More About Alexandrs earlier years and family

Entering the Academy was the turning point of his life. It was probably also something that saved his life from the fate of his mothers.   
It was the first place where someone was asking how he was doing, how he was and really taking care of him in the sense of offering enough food, warm clothes and fitting shoes. It was also a route to escape from home and streets of lower levels: alcohol, melancholy, drugs and criminal activities.   
His trainers could still sense hints of it what cadet Kallus had been. Alexandr learned fast. It was a natural process for him. Naturally, he was not good at everything. He struggled with physical exercises and remembering the correct numbers for each command. It just was hard for him. But he managed it after hard training. 

His time at the academy was not just a time of learning new skills. It was a time when he started to grow properly while getting finally a sufficient amount of food which also was nutritionally fitting for the needs of young, growing human. In two years, Alexandr grows to the frame of an average human male. But he did not stop it there. Oh no. He did not stop growing. The medical droid looking after his progress even run several tests about his hormone levels and scanning his brains just in case if something was not going as it should have been but seemed like cadet Kallus just was a late bloomer. For himself, it was an awkward time. Alexandr was way too tall, too thin and horribly clumsy when being taller than he really could even realize.   
There was some acne making Alexandr look like crap (his personal opinion). It also made him look younger than he actually was. Which led to it that he let his beard to grow and cover his cheeks. There was a loophole allowing a beard like this.   
His skin and clumsiness at the ripe age of 18-years felt very embarrassing to him. Being embarrassed also meant that the young man was unsure. 

It was also embarrassing that when other cadets went to their families for Life day or other reasons cadet Kallus lingered at the academy.   
He hardly was at any contact with his old friends. Ties to the lower levels of Coruscant started to snap when they lost Bonte. Bonte had been working at speeder rental when a bunch of kids had come there to rob it. What Alexander later heard was that the kids had been high on Kessel spice. High as kites, and they’d been imagining that they’d been robbing a bank when purple zabraks had attacked them.   
His purple friend never had a chance. Bonte was killed immediately after those roofed kids got into the rental office. Kallus attended the funeral of his friend. Most of his old gang was not there. Truly they haven’t really been a gang in the traditional meaning of gangs, but yeah. There had been strong tendencies to became one. And Kallus later found out that Lur-Kain had actually joined in one.   
Most of his old friends had moved all over the galaxy, like Bodhi who had moved to Corellian, some had died and Rorkam had ended up in jail. 

The old band of brothers drank themselves senseless at the funeral party. Later Alexandr had faint memories of it that he was throwing up at the feet of a statue of Chancellor Valorum at the small opening near his old school. He also faintly remembered leaving from a bar with dashingly handsome men called Dan. Alexandr had always known that he’d been attracted to men, it had felt natural and nobody had said a bad thing about it.   
But this was not actually what Alexandr might have imagined. He ended up at dark alley drugged, without trousers and pants. And someone stole all of his credits. It was a small miracle that he was not sliced and sold his organs as a spare part to dark markets. When laying there unable to say what or where he was a lean figure called him by name.   
“Alex, my baby.”  
It was his mother.   
She collected her wasted son and helped him to get home safely. When Kallus woke up his mother was already gone, but she had left there a breakfast and two regular pain killers. It was probably the first time she actually had left some food for him. 

If Kallus had known that this was the last time, he saw his own mother alive he would have left something there. Even a thank-you note. But he did not. Alexandr left his mother’s flat after his friends were able to bring to his new set of clothes to replace his half missing clothes since nothing, he could find from his mother’s place wasn’t fitting to him. How would they have? He had last time been there before leaving the academy.   
Tens of centimetres earlier if you wanted to use that measurement.   
It was no surprise that his mother did not live a long life. But her death was unexpected: She was found dead from sewers two months after the last time Alexandr had seen her. The report said that poor woman had probably fallen in by accident. Or she had jumped there voluntarily. But they never figure out where exactly she had fallen in nor had she made it voluntarily. The only relief for her son was that she had never been self-destructive. So maybe it indeed had been an accident.   
When Alexandr sold his mother’s apartment to a lovely rhodian couple and all that she had owned to some kind of second-hand store. He was keeping only a very modest amount of memorabilia: the only picture he had from his parents being together and some other holoimages about his childhood. It quite literally felt like cutting his last ties to lower levels of Coruscant and his past life.


	3. Ex nihilo nihil fit

Leaving his past behind was actually way easier than Kallus had thought it to be. Nobody was really interested about his personal matters, since he was not letting it out to anybody, and it was not affecting his results as a student. Naturally, the academia had med droids programmed how to work with emotional trauma and crisis, but Kallus never made any effort to talk about his harsh start of life. He was just happy it was over.   
There was no need to be bitter or he was not trying to hide it. Simply he just decided that it was not going to let shape rest of his life. No. Past with drugs, alcohol and petty thieving was not going to be who Alexandr Kallus was. Neither was any single horrible events. Sometimes he thought about the night he had ended at the alley and possibly been raped but could not force himself to remember it very carefully. At least he hadn’t been killed at that night.   
Partly because of his will of being something completely else than past Kallus had been made him apply for training what would make him specialize in law enforcement. He had, naturally, quite a good understanding of it what was 

And then his plans changed due to the separatist crisis started. Kallus was more than surprised of the rise of the separatist tendencies at the Republic, but that was just because of his own unawareness of Galactic politics. Kallus saw on his own eyes how Dooku was denouncing the Senate and Galactic republic at his so-called Raxus Address, a speech the ex-Jedi held over captured Holonet connection. It was just not his unawareness of political matters, but Alexandr was surprised by count Dooku being in a dominant position for separatist forces. Despite now having an official title recognized by his people, the man had been a Jedi master and the Jedi Order was traditionally seen strictly unpolitical instance. It did occur to Kallus’s mind that maybe this was the reason why the count had left the order.   
Traditionally the Jedi were very private and closed about their own things, this did Kallus knew. All from Coruscant probably knew that the Jedi preferred their own space and sometimes referred even serious mishandlings as an ordeal of the order itself rather than brought things to be judged by public law enforcement. They did their own things nobody really understood, and it was just best to leave it like that if you were sensible being.   
There was someone lending forward copies of counts latest speeches, and Kallus even noticed that some of his fellow students been fascinated by ideas of count Dooku. Alexandr himself found it hard to agree with most of the things count Dooku had idealized. There was … Something what he felt was disturbed, twisted and … Weird. And the Republic was something Kallus had used to. Also, the message of being suppressed by the Senate and core worlds was not very well suited to disturb a man who was born in Coruscant: the heart of senate and galactic democracy. 

The superiors and trainers of theirs were not pleased of separatist sympathises rising at the academy. Alexandr did very well understand why. Rightfully most of them were worried about how the situation would develop. The fear of war… It was a strange sensation.   
For all of them, from the youngest cadet to generals it had been made clear to them that if an armed conflict would occur some or most of them, would become part of serving forces wherever they would be needed. Alexandr found the whole situation highly intimidating. He did not really know what to think.   
Naturally, he was worried but among the Separatists, there were also instances wanting to avoid armed conflict.   
But then happened Geonosis. It was everyone’s worst nightmare. But there was a small sparkle of hope in the form of Clone soldiers.   
Since the Republic was having an army of clones, only scratches of cadets were needed in active service. General Yularen was almost immediately promoted to admiral by the special order of the Chancellor Palpatine himself and got shipped out from the academy to command clones.   
Kallus himself graduated and was enlisted to Coruscant Security Forces as an inspector to so-called ‘smugglers ring’- department. 

The Smugglers ring was a department specialised for illegal trade and illegal goods. Such were Spice and other drugs, slaves, dangerous animals and other harmful materials which would end up to the streets of Coruscant. It was not in very good financial nor personnel situation. There were certain positions lacking a holder: had been for the last 5 years. And due prioritising it was highly unlikely that they’d get any new blood any soon.  
Quite many inspectors had serious lacks in their work morale. Most of them did not appear to work on time and were not very keen to proceed in their investigations. There was also a unspoken problem with alcohol and spice. Many of Alexandr new colleagues were simply tired of being under constant lack of resources: both work power and monetising problems. And now The Clone army was quite literally eating away their fragile budget. So, when their new co-worker arrived, he was one of the most entertaining and fascinating things they had seen for a long time. Kallus’s arrival also breaks many routines they had developed, and young inspector liked to think that it was good for his new work community. It probably was at least for a short time.  
Unfortunately, lack of funds was so visible and down bringing that after a while it even hit Alexandr. It was not just being able to hire someone, but … In general. Their droids were old and there were no spare parts for quite many of them, so they had to improvise. It was anyway easier to use broken ones as spear parts than even trying to fix them as sadly it was. When Kallus had arrived and seen his new desk, he had thought it is a joke, because things strongly suggested that his desk was at least 100 years old. But when he used first working day to fix his chair, which became a weekly ritual, Alexandr knew it was not a joke. 

For almost three years most of his workdays were similar. He wakes up at 500, ate something and ran to work. Quite literally ran. He had found a good flat not so far away from the headquarters of CSF so running there thru the levels was actually an option.   
When arriving at work he took a sonic, changed to work clothes and started to analyse data the program had mined during the night. He spent most of his time analysing data, messages, security footages, receipts, flight schedules, even social media accounts of known family members, lovers and suspected customers. All the data Alexandr used for planning. He tracked their targets and gather information needed to know from where to catch them peacefully and as safely as possible or was trying to track the storage houses used for illegal activities. Mostly he was working with his brains and it was quite exceptional when he got a chance to go to the field. If he was taken to the field his co-workers were joking it was a take your child to work day since Kallus was at least decade younger than any other who worked for Smugglers Ring.   
His co-workers often left from normal office days before 1700 but Kallus often stayed there for longer. Depending on the case he could stay there even overnight. Naturally not admitting it to anyone, but Kallus had a feeling that his boss knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am starting to think that there might be about 20 chapters, but time will show it. 
> 
> Next one will be a bit shorter chapter, but after it a long one again.


	4. Sic transit Gloria Mundi

It was again an ordinary day in Alexandrs career. He had run to work and went to his office at one of the upper levels of CSF: s headquarters. There was a case against Pyke syndicate slowly cooking, suspected blackmail, spice slave trade and forced prostitution. It was a big thing and they had worked with it for a good while.  
Like normally, he spent most of his day at his office. It was already getting dark outside, if it ever went completely dark there since the amount of artificial light around, but there was the sleeping cycle most of the humanoids followed and which was considered normal so even the office was adjusted to it. Alexandr was just putting another pin in his digital map when he heard a loud gasp. He had taught that he was all alone here, which was actually the reason he was startled, not the voice itself. But when Kallus turned around to see the source of the voice he saw from the big windows of their open-plan office, that the Jedi temple was on fire. Kallus had seen many things, but this made him yelp out loud. 

With numb legs he walked there, standing next to his older and as well shocked colleague. They both just stood there and watched how red and sickly green flames got higher. Inspector Kallus had no word to describe what he was seeing. The sky above the temple was full of thick smoke and he could see how curious bystanders were flying close to the temple to see what was going on. There was probably some outstanding material available at the Holo-net.  
Alexandr’s amber eyes widened. Even though there was a long-distance he imagined that he saw blaster fire against the black smoke emerging from the roof of the temple.  
“Are they fighting at the Jedi Temple?” He asked and felt his stomach drop. What was happening? Antilles, his older colleague shrugged and looked like every minute he watched the scene made him age several years under his sideburns.  
“Let me say that something is now horribly wrong, boy”, the older man said, and his brow furrowed.  
“Well… Isn’t that kind of obvious?” Alexandr had to ask him with a soft chuckle.  
“More than usually, young man”, Antilles barked and even there was humour in his voice, he was not looking any less worried. And suddenly their comms was beeping from the highest alert code, sent even to staff already at home. This chilled blood at Kallus’s veins. This same code had been announced when the zillo beast had been loose at Coruscant. Luckily Alexandr had not been taking part of that adventure, but as trained law enforcement he had been in risk of being sent there then. But now. Now it was different. This was not some kind of mindless space critter even Kallus could tell it. Something was not right and the turmoil… He did not know what it was, but it made him nervous. 

It did not take long until members of their department had started to drop to the office. Most of them looked confused, worried and … Even annoyed. Some of them had probably had something important to do. But you had to be literally senseless not to notice that something was wrong. Very wrong.  
Small circles of inspectors were formed all over and Kallus could hear a word from here and there. Nothing sounded being certain. And that made him even more worried. This was something big.  
Everyone turned to face the incomer when hearing the turbo lift rising up and stopping at their level.  
The head of their department, pagan male captain Jarvin Karus walked towards them two guard droids following him.  
“My colleagues”, he said and stood there clearly winded and confused.  
“The Jedi has betrayed the Republic and they are now enemies of our people. We have now permission to shoot them at the site and if someone is trying to shelter any of them, the orders are same”, Captain Karus explained to them his face completely white. Even pau’an’s were always white he was paler than normally and clearly upset. A murmur rose among the inspectors. Alexandr did not know what to think. The Jedis. He had never been in close contact to any of them, but he had, in general, had a positive image of the Force users. This was still hard to swallow.  
“And in order to maintain security and for the stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire”, Kallus’s boss continued reading the announcement from his pad. Alexandr felt how his mouth was hanging open and with a snap, he closed it.  
“Long live the Empire and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine”, their boss murmured with cracking voice. 

If someone had dropped even a needle it would have been the loudest noise in the room at that very moment.  
“Force…” Someone murmured. Kallus couldn’t have said it any better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sure this had been a life-changing moment for everyone seeing order 66 to happen. Next one is going to be longer one and soon we'll see how Kallus will end up with ISB. 
> 
> Thank you for kudos you kind strangers.


	5. Nunquam non paratus

The rise of an Empire was cleaner than many would have expected. There were few incidents with the Jedi went rogue, but they were solved. Those incidents also made those who had doubt Jedi’s betrayal slowly start to stop defending the last remaining Force fielders. Kallus was among them. But still, there was a doubt. Jedi’s just had always been there. Surely, they could have just taken over any time before. So why now?   
Still, more and more stories of Jedi not being so brave and humane were released when clone soldiers or anyone who had worked with them were no longer feeling loyalty to hide the ugly truth of many of the members of the Order. Some things, like group orgies, Kallus was still thinking were just the screamers made to gain klicks and sell the news. He just could not accept everything he was reading not after being a long time enough at the service of CSF. 

There were also more concrete changes.   
One of those was seeing how the money which had been used before in war was now used to other things, like to CSF, public healthcare and that at their office they actually got new equipment’s and their droids got fixed. The most personal of the changes was that Alexandr himself got a new table, no matter what antique value that old furniture might have already had. They all also got a pay rise which made everyone’s life quality better. But not everyone was happy. A number of officials resigned. Most of them in the first three weeks of the Empire. The Smugglers ring lost Mr Karus and three inspectors. They all resigned at the instant after the declaration of Empire.   
Kallus think about them sometimes when seeing their empty desks. Soon they were replaced by new, eager workers and the atmosphere at work was changing dramatically. Their new boss was a fierce older gentleman with thick black hair and muttonchop. His name was Antilles, or that was the only name Alexandr got to call him. Captain Antilles was maybe at his fifties, sturdy like a workhorse and his bright green eyes were always cold and calculating, like some kind of dangerous predatorial bird. 

From the first moment, Alexandr met his new boss he knew that this man would not hesitate to destroy his career from the slightest mistake. And never think you after doing it.   
He clearly was a dangerous man to be around if you were not acting according to the rules and since Kallus had quite fresh from academia, he still could fall back to this expectation rather smoothly. Actually, Alexandr was rather excited that finally, something was happening!   
For his older colleagues, it was rather hard since they had worked decades with sloppy, soft and understanding leader under constant lack of motivation and resources and now, suddenly, there was someone expecting results.   
And after the first time, he catches an official drunken at work captain Antilles put up a proper purge for less competent inspectors and his subordinates. Kallus himself was not witnessing the scene but he noticed the absence of his older colleague Banrim Timok, an older man sitting at the window row and being very fatherly towards him.   
Alexandr never saw him returning to the office. And this was only the beginning. 

During next weeks almost half of the members of “Smugglers ring” were changed. Some were sent to early retirement; few were sent to other departments but mostly they just disappeared and were never seen again. His old co-workers were replaced by men and women, but mostly men, who had been transferred from other departments and some were like Alexandr himself had been: fresh from the academy. Especially they fresh from The Academy were young and enthusiastic. Alexandr found it hard to believe and remember had he been like that few years before. Yes, he had, but after seeing the smuggled slaves, murders made because of few ounces of Kessel spice, man skinned alive because he had made Pyke-syndicate wanted to make him be an example and just greed of the old Republic the little trust in the good of humanity Alexandr have had has faded.   
Still, it was nice to work with them after spending years with old men with no interest and passion for the work they were doing. They were encouraged to stay late at work and Alexandre technically moved to his office only going to home for weekends and maybe one other night a week and he was not only one. To survive his drastic schedule to work he started to use stims. They were perfectly legal and there was nothing illegal at it. They were even encouraged to use these to be more productive and needing less sleep. Alexandr got he owns from their newly reprogrammed med-droid and so did many fresh out academy inspectors hungry for a rise at their career. 

Kallus’s next big investigation was a suspected twi’lek trade. He had started to dig it thru before the formation of The Empire and since many of them who had worked there had been replaced or sacked there were some major hiccups at the research since they had lost contacts to their snitches at the underworld and low levels of Coruscant.   
This had made their next case slow down for months, but it has given to them change to build this to be a very fine and delicate trap involving a fake buyer for the wanted pleasure slave. Their plan was simple: get the buyer in and then storm the place and take the slavers by surprise. That had worked before and there was no reason it wasn’t going to work. Kallus somehow was worried. Mostly because of having now quite many colleagues with very little experience in the field working. He himself had also been mostly working at the office, but he even had some experience. This led to the situation where Alexandre himself was assigned to the field when they started to execute their plan. Captain Antilles was also there to lead and observe the whole situation. 

It was not what they had planned.   
At the moment they got their man inside the building and their commlink went dead. Kallus gritted his teethes and pulled his helmet deeper to his head. His hairs were getting messy under it, but it was not his main worry. Not now.   
The troops got closer to the doors, still waiting for the connection to return. Kallus could hear how captain Antilles was asking situation reports and trying to get thru the dead connection.   
“We are going in!” Kallus shouted and started to move. His men could only follow.   
“Inspector Kallus! Get back to your position!” He heard how Antilles shouted over the com but ignored his orders anyway. 

Alexandr kicked the main door in, shouting something, he was not sure what he exactly shouted when thinking about it later. Thought about it that he was maybe going to shoot someone was making him a bit nauseous.   
After all the situation was less dramatic than he had taught it to be. Their fake buyer had been shot probably at the moment he had been let in. His body was lying in an odd position at the middle of the hangar floor and there was no sign of slavers he had been supposed to meet there. Alexandr’s mouth went completely dry. Someone or something had blown the operation and for him, as a responsible for main intelligence gathering it meant hard times, because it either meant that he had made mistake, their buyer had made a mistake or that someone had snitched their plan.


	6. Antebellum

The situation was tenser than Alexandr would have imagined. This was not just inner investigation, they also brought ISB, Imperial Security Bureau in.  
Alexandr was one of them who got investigated since he had been in charge of collecting data and information in general. But to his own relief, the suspect was soon pointed to other directions.  
The thing what surprised Kallus was that the investigating agent told to him that he should apply for ISB if wanting to do something that really mattered. And more Alexandr thought about it the more confident he became about it. He loved collecting information and finding ways to use it. He also loved fieldwork which he hardly got while working in CSF.  
He had the application form opened and filed at his data batch for several times, but something, maybe loyalty, held Alexandr’s hand to send it. But when one of his older colleagues was found to be guilty of leaking the information intentionally Alexandr had got enough. And he also was rather impressed of it how efficient ISB was. And they really needed new agents. 

Alexandr got accepted, but there was a small problem: his training was insufficient since it had been given at the time of Jedi order which could cause liability issue since the Jedi Order had been declared a criminal organization.  
So, in case he wanted to get a job in ISB he was expected to return the academy, have two years of filling training and then, after then join to ranks as a junior agent. Naturally expecting that he would perform well at academy. 

He left the office last time almost daily after spending there for 5 years. He was 26 years old and getting back to the Academy was not easy. Most of his fellow students were younger than him. There were even 10 years of an age difference between Alexandr and some of his course members, but the good thing was that he was not only “older” there. There were cadets older than him, year or two, but older anyway!  
Kallus refused to accept being called old in any meaning, but when he was sitting at a lecture hall and hearing how his younger fellow cadets were talking about parties thrown at night at the dorms, tooka STDS or size of Loth cat penises he just simply knew that he was too old for shit like this. And still, he had to face this and survive it.  
Naturally, he had advantages from his already gathered work experience and from it that he had finished the base training once before. So now Alexandr could concentrate on more specific things. There were also some major differences in the training that the Imperium offered to the training what the Republic had offered. They, for example, had an agenda lectures, lectures of political structures and in general, they had more high-quality lectures than at the time of the Republic they had been trained to become faceless parts of machine desperately needing more cannon fodder but lacking really the fuel to keep itself working. 

Alexandr soon became a father figure or maybe older brother for boys of his cadet class. He was socially talented, and he had no family, so he was often spending time with younger cadets and since Kallus knew several things often, he was pointed as the head of their unofficial reading circle when they were having exams. If something happened to his boys it was often Alexandr taking care of it, no matter how self-sufficient they all tried to be. Despite this, all Kallus had never really thought of himself as a father or father figure. Especially since Alexandr knew that he was attracted to other males and without medical procedures or some other arrangements two males of most of the species were not able to reproduce. There was naturally a chance of him taking a wife, as top officers were encouraged since the Empire needed fresh blood and children from good families were desired. But for Alexandr taking a wife and making her miserable was not the right solution. Besides he was doing just fine on his own since homosexuality was not an option in the empire. It was sick. And it was perverted. Just like being attracted to non-humans.  
Still… being called as a father figure felt surprisingly good. And it made him proud and humble. Especially when he was the first time chosen to be their captain for scenario training. His superiors soon noticed Kallus among the group and his files started to get approving markings of leadership, charisma, loyalty and ability to inspire others.  
It was also a positive sign that cadets were forming packs. Just like the Clone soldiers did and even if clones were not anymore produced or desired, they had had several qualities which were seen as a valuable and wanted and ability to the group was one of these.

It was not surprising that Alexandr graduated with full honours after two years. Admiral Yularen was there to pin the medal of upon average grades to Kallus’s chest and patting him to shoulder with approving smile.  
“It has been a pleasure and privilege to see your progress, young man”, the admiral said and nodded stiffly to younger man, who hardly anymore was a boy, but surely was surprised that admiral was remembering him. It made Kallus feel special, approved and accepted.  
“Do you have any plans for your future?” older man asked and arched his left eyebrow a bit.  
“Admiral, sir, I am wishing to work for ISB.”  
“That, my good boy, is brilliant plan.”  
Admiral Yularen personally wrote his recommendation letter for ISB. Kallus was recruited to ISB as a junior agent without further questioning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand soon it's going to get interesting! Since we are heading towards Onderon!


	7. Para Bellum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am grateful from all of your Kudos's, comments and everything. Thank you. I love you all.

Kallus was almost immediately sent to the field: rebel ridden Onderon. This was really a golden opportunity for Kallus. Onderon had never recovered from what happened to it during the clone wars and after it, things had gone even worse. The world was at the verge of anarchy and guerrilla fighters calling themselves as a freedom fighter had destroyed way too big portions of local road networks, factors and even food supplies. Prior freedom fighter Saw Gerrera had gone completely rogue after the rise of the Empire and was not accepting the fact that there was not any mandate for his actions.  
This was really a place where Kallus and Empire could do good. And grab a fast promotion and a nice position inside ISB. 

Alexandr was appointed as a leader of a small force of Stormtroopers. As an ISB agent or junior agent, in this case, he was responsible for practical usage of collected data at this sector of Onderon and counterintelligence from the local rebels. He was set here as a captain. His troops did not know that he was from ISB. Not even his Sergeant was aware of his role in this mission. Seeing his own troops made Kallus feeling proudness and excitement. He wanted to learn all of their names and stories and show to them that he valued and approved them. Many of them were right out from the training or academy. His Sargent was the one with most field experience. 

Alun, Corvello, Haywind and Tamrin were bare feet Coruscanti boys just like Kallus but from way upper levels than he was. Tamrin was his Sargent, older man with thick moustaches, who had worked under admiral Yularen during clone wars and was aware of it who had recommended Kallus.  
Two Lars (cousins) and Tinker were from Corellian, they had joined for a better life since Corellia was not a pleasant place for poor kids. Quntan, dark-skinned and haired man, was from some Force forsaken Outer Rim planet Kallus never remembered correctly. Bon, their medic and Fiorfan were really from nowhere since they had lived their lives working at cargo vessels travelling from one port to another. They spoke basic with a strong accent and Kallus assumed that their first language might actually be hutteese. Bihar and Zantorin were from Arkanis, tall and proud. They could have applied for Arkanis academy, but they were around Kallus’s age and had wanted just to get out from their home planet. 

They landed to Iziz, capital of Onderon, at early morning of the local solar cycle. Kallus among the other Coruscanti boys was startled how … open things were. And somehow quiet. There was no constant hum and beat of the living world.  
The open, blue sky made Alexandr feel uneasy, but he could not jump to walls when the wind blows little stronger or when birds were shrieking.  
Everything was so different from Coruscant. It was almost so peaceful that Alexandr forgot that they indeed were at war zone.  
The Empire had secured the Iziz and brought stability to the capital region. It was easy to see that people of Onderon were suffering from war fatigue even now when it was relatively safe at the capital. There was a lot of refugees and constant lack of supplies, even very basic ones. Like food or hygiene products. 

They spent a week at Iziz to orientation and to get adjusted to the pressure on this planet. As Onderon was mostly full of jungles the temperatures and especially nights were often tropical.  
Alexandr found himself for more than one night covered in sweat and since he, as a captain, was not wearing the stormtrooper armour, he burned his face at the very first day at this dust ball.  
The cover mission they had granted was simple. They were supposed to be the replacement for old clone unit still held at Onderon. Alexandr in the other hand was supposed to collect information about rebel activities and as a part of security team organize planetwide safety network to be more effective against especially Gerrera and his troops.  
But before that their departure they were assigned at routine patrol mission. 

Alexandr stood inside LAAT and hold up from a strap like a handle. His men were chatting calmly, and moods were high but also expecting.  
“Captain Kallus!” Sargent Tamrin started, and Kallus turned to watch the man when the LAATi suddenly shakes from a hit.  
“What was that?” Someone, probably Tinker shouted and before Alexandr even could even contact the pilot and asked a new, harder hit shook them.  
“They are shooting us!” someone cried from terror. His first firefight as an agent! The next rocket tore a hole at the left side of LAATi, making cold air burst to the hull and the pressure almost swiped Kallus from his feet.  
The pilot tried to say something, but nobody really heard it since something exploded.  
“Get ready for the forced landing!” Kallus shouted taking a knee and protecting his neck with his hands by his best ability. His heart was beating wildly. This was not feeling real and he had no time to be feeling terror. How was this happening to him? What was their distance from the land?  
A next hit made metal shriek and the whole LAAT started to swing out from the control. A realization hit Kallus. This was not one of the happy landings.  
At this point, nobody at inside knew that the left wing of their transporter was gone, or that they were just about to hit the ground. For Alexandr, this all was just caught in a horrible nightmare. His men were terrified and some of them were also hurt. Some possibly already dead. 

It was probably an act of mercy, but something hit Alexandr to back of his head and he fell in blissful darkness. 

When Kallus came up again everything was in flames. He was feeling the warmth all around him and hearing the cracking of fire. For a moment Alexandr had no idea where the sky was and where the ground.  
The LAATi had crash-landed in a small opening or the aircraft had made that little opening by crashing there. Dark smoke was rising towards the sky. White pieces of armours were scattered around like chips at a casino table. The pilot was hopefully already dead, but the cockpit was burning with high flames. Alexandr gingerly flipped to lay at his back and stared the smoke covered sky. This was not good. This was not how this was supposed to go.  
Later he could not remember anything about the formations or surface of the place, but he had a vague memory of lush green leaves and how his own hands were covered in ash-coloured sand so maybe they had been near a river. But only maybe. 

Someone hovered upon him.  
“Captain…”  
Kallus saw how his Sergeants blood-stained lips formed that one word even he was not able to hear it. His world was swirling in spirals of blue and grey.  
“Medic! Oh, Force! We need a medic!” A broken voice shouted from distance, and something told to Alexandr that he had to get up. And he started to get up, just to realize that there was a badly injured man right next to him.  
Quntan.

Someone shouted for mother in hutteese. 

Alexandr struggled to get in crouching position. 

Two of his soldiers tried to extinguish the fire from the blacks of one of his other men making strange quirking sounds and trying to crawl forward. Zantorin was literally burning. He was still having most of his armour on and because of this he was being roasted alive.  
Alexandre got up to his shaky legs and tried to take his jacket off, joining to his men trying to extinguish the flames from poor Zantorin.  
His jacket of an official was thick enough to extinguish the flames, thanks to the stars! His troops were quite a literally routing, panicking! And Junior Agent Kallus had no idea what to do! He knew the protocol what to do after an ambush, he knew what to do after the battle, he had been taught what to do if a freighter got in the fire.  
But he had no idea what to do after his troops being shot down in relatively friendly territory, his men scattered around like shards from an exploded bottle.  
“Report in!” He tried to shout.  
“All men to me!” 

Kallus turned his head to see his troops better, but only saw how a purple blaster jolt was about to hit him and tried to evade it, but it hit him right to the chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some troubles with my brains with about it should I try to put this in one or two pieces and now you actually got two pieces. 
> 
> I love to hear your comments if you have anything to say. Seeing that even one new person has read this makes me super happy. Thank you!


	8. Nocere

Alexandr came by again after short moment. It did not take long from him to realize that he was not able to move. He could move his arms and legs, but oh the pain when he tried to move his body!   
A wordless groan of pain left from his lips.   
Thick smoke circled in air and he heard from distance how his troops were trying to gather themselves, but with relatively little success since most of them were already wounded or injured. Or trying to help injured brother in arms. 

Kallus was laying against a small stone or some rubbish from the crashed LAATi, and soon his eyes caught a tall, broad shouldered figure calmly walking thru smoke and fire.   
At first, he taught it was just something his brains were making up, but then he saw how the tall figure lifted a weapon and shoot Bihar to the head. Kallus tried to shout when he saw his troopers limp body to fall to the ground, switching slightly before being completely still.   
The being with long, braided hairs step to the light and Alexandr could only look how the tall figure walked there, fired his bo-rifle to men’s trying to rise their weapons against him and one by one, calmly, effectively, finished them. One by one. 

As an inhabitant of Coruscant he had seen lasat’s before. Not often but often enough so that it was clear that the gunslinger was one of them. And again. One by one, while getting closer, the figure finished his troops.  
Most clearly Alexandr saw how the unknown rebel walked closer and then, suddenly stopped for a while to crushing the head of sadly quaking, badly burned Zantorin with his feet like an insect, at same time shooting down to somewhere where Kallus could not see and then… Stopping by next to the wounded agent himself.  
A hitched breath escaped from Kallus’s lips when he stared up to the lasats face. He saw how two bright green orbs were staring right to him, shaded by the smoke hanging in the air. Kallus’s heart almost stopped beating from shear fear and he was certain that this was going to be how he was going to die. Something very primitive made him try to crawl backwards, trying to avoid the looming death, no matter the horrendous pain aching from his sternum. This was not the way he wanted to die.   
Then the voice of blaster fire made the monstrously tall figure to turn around and walk away.   
This was one of moments when Alexandr prayed.   
He had never been religious. His mother had believed into the Force, and he had kind of basic understanding of how the religion and Force were supposed to work. Since young age had seen holovids about the Jedi, he had to believe in it since seeing what it was able to do with his own eyes, but praying was the other thing. Very different thing.   
But mow. Now he tried. And cried while doing it. 

Soon all of the voices of battle were gone. Alexandr only heard his own ragged breathing, cracking of the hungry fire and beating of his own heart. He was going to die. He was going to die! Though was ricocheting in his mind without real aim or source.   
A tall figure walked again to him, looming over him, bending his neck a bit to see the wounded agent and Kallus could only stare to his bright green eyes. The lasat lowered his bo-rifle, made small, unhappy noise and placed it to its holster at his back, leaving trembling, hitching and badly wounded Kallus there, among the corpses of his very first unit. Kallus could only watch how the partisan disappeared to a shroud created by the dark smoke and fire.   
Hot tears of relieve and anger busted free at the very moment Alexandr realized that he was all alone. 

It took three hours from the search patrol to come to evacuate him. Three long hours he spent crying in increasing pain barely clinging in consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the shortest of all chapters but pretty important for Kallus's development


	9. Vae victis

Kallus was not certain at what point he had fallen in sleep. The pain medication the medic had given to him had made his entire world a bit shaky so that when he had been laying down, it had felt like being walking upright. The mild concussion was not helping it at all. Only making him want to keep his eyes closed.   
It was hard to explain. 

They had cut off his uniform, boots, and everything. A breathing mask at his face was making it easier to breathe even he had not had bad oxygen levels. It was, as a gentle medic had told to him, just making things easier for him. His right lung had collapsed at a way to medevac shuttle and that had been a scary experience, but the team had managed it well. 

His sternum had broken in two and sunken few inches inward making it difficult to get some air and it had been now sawn together with metallic wire and bacta. a small price from surviving a blaster bolt shot directly to the chest. His skin would be tender for a long time and prone to sunburns for a long time. There was also going to be distinctive scar telling its own tale.   
Kallus’s right hand had bad nerve damage and would need an operation soon, there were cracks at his spine and nerve damage at his legs. He could not currently feel a thing below his knees which apparently was good since he had badly broken left feet.   
Breathing was less painful when properly drugged. 

The medication was a funny thing. He knew where he was, who he was, why he was here and he … Maybe worst was that he clearly remembered what had happened.   
And when closing his eyes, he saw how the lasat smashed Zantorin’s head or how Bihar’s brains blurted out from the impact of a blaster bolt.   
His dreams were confusing blurs of colours and forms. He could not really control any of it. 

Next time he recalled being conscious there was quiet beeping of different devices. He had no idea where he was, but the feeling of light around him was totally unexpected.   
Why it was so light? Almost white? 

“… You have done well”, he heard and felt how someone was touching his left shoulder. Alexander’s eyes went groggily open. Why it was so light here? He tried to look around his surroundings bout could not move his head since there were all kind of wires and stuff at his neck. 

“You indeed have done well”, the faceless voice said, and Kallus tried to concentrate his gaze. He could barely recognise the typical white uniform of … Kallus blinked from surprise and tried to salute Colonel Yularen standing next to his bed.   
Alexandr could only make a small gasp when trying to an apology. 

“No need for that, my dear boy. At ease, Kallus”, the older man said and gave to him a rare, radiating smile.   
He saw something glimmering at his superiors’ hand. A medal.   
“For behalf of the First Galactic Empire, the Imperial Army and Imperial Security Bureau are going to grand to you, junior agent Alexandr Kallus, a golden star of Coruscant, the second class with Malreaux rose”, he said, and Kallus blinked. It was a medallion given to them who had shown exceptional bravery and died or almost died while doing it.   
His shoulders slumbered. He did not deserve it. He had not done anything particularly brave. Not been even able to save his unit. 

The medallion glimmered against the harsh, bright and sterile light of his patient room, as it was mocking him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made up the medallion by myself inspired by the Purple Heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! 
> 
> This is my first Rebels fic. And yes, it will eventually get there. I try to follow canon so far I am aware of it, but there will be also my own choices. The chapter-length will vary but I will post new chapters when I have finished at least one chapter in storage. 
> 
> I choose Kallus to have a quite rough background.  
> There will be references for alcohol usage, drug usage, organize crime, slavery and sexual abuse, prostitution, violence, sexual themes, the homophobic attitude of imperium, the sexism practised by imperium, the xenophobic attitude of imperium, mental health issues (PTSD mostly), mentions of suicide, vomiting and blood.  
> Might have forgotten something but this will be adult fic anyway. 
> 
> But yes. There will be Kallus/Zeb, because I have read too many fics about them and darn, you converted me. 
> 
> I am glad to take feedback and love your comments because it means that you have read it. :D


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